Modification of Clays by Sol-Gel Reaction and Their Use in the Ethylene in Situ Polymerization for Obtaining Nanocomposites

The nanocomposites formation by in situ polymerization used a metallocene catalyst (butyl-2-cyclopentadienyl zirconium 2-chlorines) and a hectorite synthetic clay type which is discussed. This research was carried out in two phases. The first phase consisted of mixing the components of the metallocenic polymerization reaction (metallocene-methylaluminoxane-ethylene) with clay in a reactor. In the second phase, the metallocenic catalytic system was supported by clay particles and then a polymerization reaction was made. In this second phase, the clay particles were modified using a sol-gel reaction with different pH values: pH = 3, pH = 8, and pH = 12. The results were compared in terms of the catalytic activity in the different systems (phase 1 and phase 2) and the nanoparticle morphology of nanocomposites generated in this study. Copyright © 2012 E. Moncada et al.